Pinga Official Song - Deepika and Priyanka [OUT ON YOUTUBE NOW] - Page 37

nga pricks a few raw nerves

Pune Mirror | Nov 18, 2015, 02.30 AM IST

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Pinga pricks a few raw nerves

By Ketaki Latkar

Song from Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Bajirao Mastani rings false to the ears of historians and artistes, who cry foul on social media

Bajirao-Mastani's descendants must be feeling even more apprehensive about whether director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is being true to history in his magnum opus now. Barely a month before the period drama about Maratha warrior Peshwa Bajirao I releases (December 18), a single song-and-dance number released on Sunday has already kicked up a storm on social media.

Titled Pinga, the song has been squarely panned by dance exponents, vocalists, filmmakers and historians alike " on grounds ranging from distortion of history to an uncouth mix of completely divergent dance forms.

Pinga features an onscreen dance sequence camaraderie between Bajirao's first wife, Kashibai (played by Priyanka Chopra) and his second wife, Mastani (played by Deepika Padukone). Choreographer and show designer Sneha Barge voiced her strong dislike for the song on a social media platform. For her, the essence of the film, gathered from Pinga, seems to be a rather unsavoury departure from historical facts. "I do not get the point of making period cinema and then deviating from history. Also, merely draping nine-yard sarees and wearing 'naths' (nose ornaments) is not convincingly Maharashtrian," said Barge, adding that the whole concept of Kashibai and Mastani dancing together seems blasphemous and the song, its situation, the costumes and the dance " together made for a classic case of empty extravaganza and ill-research.

Back in the 18th century Peshwa era, it was taboo for women from royal families to engage in conversations or even socialise with the staff of the court, let alone join the second wife of her husband on the dance floor. Besides, Mastani was known to have been ostracised by the Peshwas as she was Muslim. She was looked upon as more of a concubine than a second wife. "Kashibai was known to be a very accommodating and wise woman. There is no conclusive evidence to prove that she held any animosity towards Mastani. However, I must assert that she would never be dancing along with Mastani in the court. It is unreal," insisted historian Pandurang Balkawade.

Facts aside, Marathi netizens seem to have been particularly offended by the dance performance itself, with some saying the song wasn't even true to the traditional dance style it borrowed its name from. Legal practitioner Sneha Panse Barde said, "The funniest bit is that the song is called Pinga, but the dance number in it is more of a modified Lavani. I can understand the exercise of creative liberty, but that cannot happen at the cost of tweaking a cultural form according to one's convenience and creating a rather unreal and offensive version."

Pinga is less of a dance and more of an exercise form that involves resting the hands on the waist and moving around in circles. It is traditionally performed during the celebration of Mangalagaur in the month of Shravan by newly married women, and is marked by 100 odd traditional games and a series of folk songs preceded by a puja of goddess Mangala Gauri.

Not just Punekars given their Peshwa history, the dance number seems to have touched a raw nerve with dancers and musicians as well. Kathak exponent Maneesha Sathe lashed out, "I was shocked and disgusted after watching the song. It doesn't incorporate Pinga in its original, authentic form. I condemn the distortion of dance forms of any sort in such a fashion." Echoing her sentiments, Pandit Rajkumar Barshikar, an accomplished vocalist of the Kirana Gharana, added, "Both the music and the dance are equally unflattering. This is a growing tendency that I have marked among big banner movie makers. They do whatever they fancy under the name of artistic liberty. At least, they should stop using names like Pinga if they want to experiment."

A period drama is intended to project the narrative of a particular era, with special emphasis on the social and cultural fabric. "If you want to take us back in time and then fool around by contemporising the happenings of that era to suit modern trends, you are creating lot of confusion for the audiences," stressed actor- director Manava Naik, who felt that the song was a blatant insult to Peshwa history. "If Kashibai were to accommodate Mastani in such an embracing fashion, history would have been different. I am absolutely disgusted with the lack of research by the production house and I feel, as members of the film fraternity, responsible cinema-making needs to be given a priority," she said.

SLB takes his creative liberties a tad too far. In Devdas, he showed a married woman belonging to aristrocracy in pre-independence India dancing with a prostitute. That is the most unlikely thing ever to happen. Bengal was so orthodox at that time, women belonging to aristocratic families were not even allowed to step outside the house or show their face to any other man apart from their close family members. But that was still okay, because Devdas is a work of fiction in the first place, so people can interpret it in any way they wish to.

But Bajirao Mastani is a piece of real history. You can't show a high-caste Marathi Peshwa woman dancing with her husband's mistress and expect that there won't be any reactions. Not to mention, mixing up Pinga and Lavani, two dance forms completely different from each other.

Jodha-Akbar had the same reactions from Rajput community.

One needs to be careful while making such films, you can't make up controversial stuff for the same of commercial interest and then expect that everyone will be okay with it.

It was not a question of wives getting along or not. It was a question of religion. Mastani was a Muslim and there is simply no way that a high-caste Peshwa woman would ever interact with anyone out of their religion or even caste, dancing is out of question.

Mastani was so ostracised by the entire Peshwa court that Bajirao had to build a separate accommodation for her outside his main palace to pacify everyone.

If you look at it from the point of views of historians or people of Peshwa lineage, they would probably find the whole idea of Kashibai and Mastani dancing together blasphemous.

I am starting to feel slb did go too far! He cud have nshown only the peshwa's wife n the nwomen in the family doing pinga instead of Mastani joining them!

It's a nice song n video but the idea of the 2 dancing together is unreal!